Republicans on the Way to Perdition

Republicans, soundly defeated by the election of Obama in 2008, plus their major loss in both houses of congress, provided enough grief for their demigod spirit Ronald Reagan to exclaim more than just a polite, AW SHUCKS. You would expect a Party stung by defeat to ruthlessly prune its ranks of losers and and recast its bungled ideology into a new, energizing winning cris de guerre. This is not the case. Instead, fiercely true to arch-conservative doctrine, they dementedly reverted to their almost prenatal past mantra: CUT TAXES and SMALL GOVERNMENT.

This conservative parade has past, led by their goofy drum major GW Bush, marching to the music played by Wall Street and Big Business. The problem was not that the Republicans opened the doors to ravaging the nation's wealth, but the fact they were so incompetent that they wrecked the country in the process. They also may well have infected the global economy led by foreign bankers who foolishly misjudged the competency of the US at their peril.

These new facts on the ground have had the effect of ratcheting the US economic system into a new era of government intervention into private business. The congressional Republican weasels are accusing Obama of Socialism. They are correct of course, but their stooge, GW Bush, set the country on this road with his TARP bailout; foolish wars of uncontrolled spending; no fiscal regulations nor energy policy; and, a tax plan that failed to cover expenditures. There will be no return to the pre Bush economic status.

Even profligate gangster bosses usually are clever enough to leave money on the streets for the minor crooks. Under the GW Bush regime, this did not happen, so a starting point for economic recovery is more elusive. It is a brave, new, frightening economic world out there now. Based on the their actions to date, the Republicans will not provide the new masters of an unbalanced universe they inadvertently created.

After a public cat fight, the Republicans picked Michael Steele as Chairman of the Republican Party (RNC). Mike is under a the cloud of a public election financial scandal from an election he just lost as a senator from Maryland. Mike was probably elected at the RNC because he is black and can possibly attract minority voters. He has done just the opposite with his jive talk; he has pissed off blacks as well as whites. He attacked the untethered, sacred, Republican blimp Limbaugh as just an entertainer and later embarrassed himself by apologizing to him for telling this truth.

For whatever reason, Limbaugh was given about an hour and half air time by CNN for his address at a conservative convention. I have only heard Limbaugh in three minute catty partisan snippets, so I listened to him for nearly his whole address, and he was underwhelming. He repeated recycled anti-liberal diatribes that were passe in the fifties. At least Bill Buckley did it then with elegance and did not bounce around like a basketball as he spoke. It is understood why his approval rate is 17%, of which 70% of it is almost all male squirrel hunters.

Limbaugh may be the Mr. Pickwick, but the conservative female Goldilocks is Ann Coulter who resembles an underfed Afghan hound. She is also attracted to recycled anti-liberalism. She is unlike some of the attractive, right wing blond ladies at FOX News, who with the sound turned down, are at least pleasant to to view. Coulter even scares scarecrows.

Both Limbaugh and Coulter seem to appeal to the religious right wing of the the Republican Party who will believe what they are told without question by the shepherds of their flock. With this audience, these two can get as high as a 33% approval rating by the American public if this group switches the dial from religious programs to them.

Republican congressional representatives are led by Senators Bomb Bomb McCain and Mitch McConnel in the upper house and Congressmen Cantor and Boenher in the lower house. All of them still cannot believed Republicans were crushed in the last election. The senators still have a role and make an impact in the senate; but the Republican house members are at best ducks that cannot fly. Cantor's role is probably as the Zionist Rep in congress and Boenher is a walking ad for MAN TAN – if he does not stop oiling himself up, he will soon be darker than Obama.

The Republicans are trying to push Governor Jindal from Louisiana as a new light in its political firmament; based on his recent TV reply to Obama, Jindal is a very rough work in progress... Governor from Mississippi, H. Barbour, is the most qualified of the Republican governors, but the longer he remains buried in that state, the heavier his accent develops. Soon he will need an interpreter to speak to the rest of the nation.

Realistically the Republican party is a Southern regional party – with a nudge from radical Democrats, it could turn Dixiecrat over night. Limbaugh-Palin-Joe the Plumber is some trinity to worship.

For the record, I have put the Republicans firmly and hopelessly on the road to perdition. This does not mean that Obama and his Klezmer band of Bernarke, Summers, Emanuel, Geithner, and Orszag have managed to play a tune that will make the US economy dance – as a matter of fact, their tunes are discordant. So far so bad. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA Ret.

* Photograph: Etching by Käthe Kollwitz